Server sales are stabilising despite slowdown, says Gartner

The worldwide server market is beginning to show signs of stabilisation despite continuing to book year-on-year declines in both shipments and revenues.

According to Gartner , total shipments for the third calendar quarter of 2009 slumped 17.1% year-on-year to 1.9 million, while revenues fell 15.5% over the same period to $10.7bn (£6.4bn).

However, quarter to quarter, shipments were up just under 14% from the period ended 30 June, and sales were up 10.2%, according to Gartner research vice president Jeffrey Hewitt, who said: "It is important to put the yearly declines into perspective."

"[This] suggests that the market as a whole is showing signs of stabilisation as we move toward the end of 2009," he said.

The ProLiant server line-up helped Hewlett-Packard maintain its shipment lead, shifting 615,694 units or 32.1% of the total market during the quarter versus 437,447 units at its closest competitor, Dell, which boasts a 22.8% market share.

IBM, Fujitsu and Sun rounded off the top five with market shares of 12.8%, 3.5% and 2.6%. Sun saw the greatest year-on-year decline in shipments, while Fujitsu was least affected, down 38.1% and 9% respectively.

In revenue terms, the quarter was again a two horse race between HP and IBM, with IBM coming in first with sales of $3.38bn to HP's $3.21bn. They were followed by Dell, Sun and Fujitsu in that order.

A version of this story appeared on Microscope